Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1887-05-23

vited the Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage, ID,
to preach a sermon at the Brooklyn Taber-
nacle appropriate to the occasion, as often
in the annual commemoratiOn, but little
had been said of those who served in the
navy. An American flag adored the pull
pit, and the congregation sang with great
spirit:
My country, it's of thee,
Sweet land of liberty.
DR.. Talmage's text was from James
Ill.,, 4:
''BEHOLD ALSO THE SHIPS"
He said:
If this exclamation was appropriate
about 1860 years ago, when it was written
concerning the crude fishing smacks that
sailed Lake Galilee, how much more ap-
propriate in an age which has launched
from the dry docks for purposes of peace
the Arizona of the Guion Line, the City of
Richmond of the Inman Line, the Egypt
of the National Line, the Germanic OF the
White Star Line, the CircasSia of the An
chOr Line, the Etruria of the Cunard Line
and the Great Eastern, with hull six hun
dred and eighty feet long-not a failure,
for it helped lay the Atlantic cable, and
that was enough glory for one ships ex-
in an age which for pur-
poses of war has launched the screw-sloOps
like the Idaho, the Shenandoah, the Os-
sippee, and our ironclads like the Kala-
mazoo, the Roanoke and the punderberg,
and those which have already been buried
in the deep like the Monitor,
the Housatonic, the Weehawken and
the Tecumseh, the tempests ever
since sounding vOlley over their watery
sepulchres, and the SCARED veterans of
war shipping like the Constitution, or the
Alliance, or the Constellation that have
swung into the naval yards to spend their
last days, their decks now all silent of tue
feet that trOd them, their rigging all silent
of the hands that clung to them, their
PORTFOLIOS silent Of the braxen thr0ats that
once thqndered ont Of them. in the
first century, when war vessels were de-
pendent on the oars that padded at the
side Of them for propulsion, my text was
suggestive, with how much more emphasis,
and meaning, and overwhelming reminis-
cence we can cry out, rs we see the Kear-
sage lay across the bows of the Alabama
and sink it,
TEACHING FOREIGN NATIONS
they had better keep their hand off our
American fight, or rs we see the ram Abe
marie, of the Conletlerates, running ont
and in the Roanoke, aud up and down the
coast, throwing everything into confusion
rs no other craft ever did, pursued bv the
MAMA, the Ceres, the SOuIhield, the Sas-
sacus, the Mattabesctt, the White Head,
Minnesota and other armed vessels all try
ing in vain to catch her. until Captain
Cushing, henty-One years Of age, and his
men blew her up, himself and only one
other escaping, and Us see the flagship
Hartford and the Richmond and the Mo-
with other gunb0atS. sweep
past the batteries of Port Hudson, and the
Mississippi flows forever free TO all North
ern and Southern crafts, cry out with q
patriotic emotion that cannot sup
press if ! would, and would not if
| could: "BehOld also the ships!"
At the annual decoration of graves,
North and South, among Federals and
COnfederateS, full justice has been done to
the memory of those who fought on the
land in our sad contest, but not enough
has been said of those who on ships deck
dared and suffered all things. Lord God
of the river and the sea, help me in this
sermon So, ye admirals, commodores,
commanders, captains, pilots, gunners,
boatswainS, sailmakers, surgeons, stOkers,
messmates and seamen of all names, TO use
your own parlapce, we might ~ well get
under way and stand out towards sea. Let
all land lubhers go ashore. Full speed
now -Four bells
Never since
THE SEA FIGHT OF LEPANTu,
where three hundred royal galleys manned
by fifty thousand warriors, at sunrise, Sep
tembcr q, 1911, met two hundred and fifty
royal galleys manned by one hundred and
twenty thousand men, and in the four
hours of battle eight thousand lell on one
side and twenty-five thousand on the
other; yes, never since the day when at
Actium thirty-One years before Christ,
Augustus with two bundled and sixty ships
scattered the two hundred and twenty
ships of Mark Antony and gained uni
versal dominion of the prize; yea, since
the day when at Salamis the twelve hun
dred galleys of the Persians, manned by
five hundred thousand men, were crushed
by Greeks with less than third of the
force; yea, never since the time of Noah,
the first ship captain, has the world seen
such miraculous creation as that Of the
American Navy in 1851. There were
about two hundred available seamen in
all the naval stations and receiving ships,
and here and there and old vessel. Yet
orders were given to blockade thirty five
hundred miles of sea coast, greater than
the whole coast of Europe. and beside that,
the Ohio, Tennessee, Cumberland, Mississ,
ippi, and other great rivers, covering
an extent Of two thousand more miles were
to be patrOlled. No wonder the whole
civilized world hurst into gutfaw OF laugh,
ter mt the seeming impOssibility. Rut the
work was done, done almost Immediately,
done thoroughly, and done with speed
and cOnsummate skill that eclipsed all the
history of naval architecture. What bril-.
liant achievements are suggested by the
mere mention of the names OF the rear ad.
miIals. If all they did should be written,
every one, ! suppose that even the world
itself could not contain the books that
should be written. But these names have
received the honOrs due. The most o.
them went to their graves under the eau
nonade of all the forts, navy yards and
men of war, the flags of all the shipping
and capitals at half mast.
But recite to-day the deeds Of
OUR NAVAL HEROES
who have not yet received appropriate
recognition. "BehOld also the ships" A
we will never know what our nationa
prosperity is worth until we realize wha
what it cost, / recall the unrecited fac
that the men OF the navy ran especia
risks. They had not only the human
weaponry to contend with, but the tides
the fog, the storm. Not like other ship
could they run into harbor at tn
approach of an equinox, or a cy
clone, or a hurricane, because th'
harbors were hostile. A miscalculatiOI
of n tide might leave them on q bar, and {